Working Within The Confines
by Starsurfer108
Summary: What if Thor had visited Loki in jail before he required Loki's help in Thor:TDW? A short Thor and Loki face-off. Not slash. ONESHOT. COMPLETE.


Thor took a deep breath as he walked down the stairs to the jail. It had been months since Loki had been imprisoned for trying to take over Midgard through brute force. He had never visited Loki before, except in his mind – he'd always wanted to know how Loki was, and was thinking about him even more frequently these days. He missed Loki – or more particularly, he missed having a brother, even though he couldn't be sure that it hadn't all been an illusion on Loki's part. But it was time to find out.

Thor stepped into view of Loki's cell. Immediately straightening, Loki put down his book and stood up. He had a look of anger on his face.

"How are you?" Thor asked in a rather subdued but professional voice.

"Pretty much the same," Loki replied, sarcastically.

Thor was dejected, seeing no signs that Loki wanted to patch things up. Not knowing how to proceed, they fell into an uncomfortable silence.

Loki's lips contorted even further. "After all this time you've come to visit me. _Why_?"

"Because it's been a long time. I thought you might have cooled down by now."

"Oh no, I'm definitely not _cooled_. My rage is like a fire, burning out of control if left unchecked."

Thor tried to appear emotionless, hiding the dismay at Loki's response that showed he still took no pleasure in the visit. "And are you taking care of yourself?"

"Oh, _concern_ for me, brother," said Loki coldly. "How _heartwarming_."

"Don't try to manipulate me into feeling guilty for your predicament, Loki," Thor replied, well aware that he was out of his depth trying to verbally spar with Loki but not wanting to let him get away with it either.

Loki let out a sarcastic huff. "If I was manipulating you, then I'd be acting as if I actually cared about you. Then you'd do anything to break me out of here."

Thor gave a subdued chuckle. "You must really hate me, then."

"Your powers of perception are improving, brother," snarled Loki. "I do, indeed, hate _you_ as well as all the other people in our lives who give preferential treatment to an oaf like yourself."

Thor gave a nod, looking miserable. "I guess I have nothing to offer you."

"Offer me!?" spat Loki, becoming even angrier. "Thank you for _finally_ thinking about me, brother, after all these years. Just a _little late_."

Thor let out a deep breath and pressed a button to the side, causing the yellow barrier between them to disappear. He stepped through, into the enclave.

Loki's eyes widened, but he stood his ground, despite his body language betraying weakness and fear.

Taking slow steps towards Loki, Thor said "You keep referring to me as 'brother'. Do you really mean it?"

Loki had a frown on his forehead, eyes determined, but there was a slight quaver in his voice. "Well, it's not as if I have a choice of which family I belong to, considering I killed my father and betrayed my entire race."

"Brother or no, do you really think I would harm you?"

Loki's eyes betrayed hatred towards Thor for forcing him to face his own insecurities. Even though he knew Thor wouldn't harm him, he was still uncomfortable at being vulnerable and couldn't stop the trembles.

"You're _weak_, Loki," snarled Thor, with implications that having any kind of relationship with other people required strength.

Loki pursed his lips, and looked down, ashamed and chided. Then he clenched his fist and looked back at Thor with eyes of a tiger. "What the hell would you know about relationships? You wiggle your ass, and you immediately get this girl… and your stupid friends love every idiotic display of bravado, which, I might add, almost got myself and others _killed_ when we battled the frost giants against Father's wishes."

Thor looked down, ashamed. "I know. And I know I'm not fit to be king," he said softly.

"You're not fit to be _anything_," snapped Loki.

Thor surveyed him, acknowledging that what Loki said didn't really make sense, but the emotion was there. "Not even a jailbird?" he asked, with implications of being lower than even the lowest class on Asgard as well as hinting that he wanted to spend more time with Loki.

Loki's eyes narrowed. "Definitely _not_. And I'm sure that would be bordering on inhumane if I had to share a cell with you."

Thor nodded, pacing. Even though this meeting didn't turn out the way he wanted, he was somewhat calm from seeing Loki again.

He stepped out and pressed the button to reignite the yellow barrier, then turned to face Loki.

"It's been a pleasure, as always-" they both said at the same time. Neither of them could stop from smirking despite themselves.

A peaceful expression came to Thor's face, as it was the first sign they still had some connection as brothers. "Loki, why won't you manipulate me?" he muttered, shaking his head with a small smile on his face.

"Now I _really_ fucking hate you," replied Loki, but there was less maliciousness in his voice.

Thor couldn't help but let out a laugh despite his bitterness. "By the way, brother, there's something else taking over the world – it's called Twitter. Maybe you should have used that to your advantage."

Loki looked wordlessly at Thor as he left the prison row.

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A/N – it was obvious that Thor had been thinking about Loki, but in the events of Thor: The Dark World, he only visited when he needed the help. In TDW, both Thor and Odin seemed to have a lot less compassion than what I would have expected. Which got me thinking – what if Thor had visited earlier? It does kind of go over the same themes in The Dark World when they're on that boat when Jane's asleep.

And yes, hurry up and take over the world, Tom Hiddleston! Geez! *taps fingers impatiently*

Is there a joke I can make about Loki being a jailbird and using Twitter? Hm…


End file.
